The Last Eight Weeks

Hello! It's been a while. Last time I checked in I had just DNF'd my first race and was dealing with piriformis syndrome. Sadly, eight weeks later, I am still dealing with it. No running. No sitting. You get the idea.

2013 has been a rough year, at least on the running end of things. I've been injured or slowly recovering from injury more months than not in the past 365 days. The last truly good race I ran was the Baltimore Marathon last October. It's pretty much been downhill since then and believe me, it has left me questioning what I think my body is actually capable of vs. what my mind wants it to be capable of.

In any event, at least each injury gets easier to deal with. Don't get me wrong, I'm extremely bitter everytime I see someone running and I have avoided reading other running blogs at all costs. Frankly, I don't want to hear about someone else's awesome marathon recap while I'm benched for the best running weather season of the year. Still, aside from one or two days during the last eight weeks, I've been okay with not running. Or at least, I've accepted it.

Luckily, this fall has been absolutely insane between work and school and life and while I would love to be running right now, at least I'm keeping busy. Here's what I've been up to the past eight weeks:

Physical Therapy
As soon as I DNF'd that race, I called the doctor and set up some PT appointments. PT has always worked for me in the past and I felt confident we could nip this thing in the bud right away. Unfortunately, PT has not really helped at all this time around, which has been very disappointing. They even tried a fancy treatment called Iontophoresis that involves driving anti-inflammatory into my butt with an electric field. I felt a little improvement six treatments later, but as soon as I tried sitting again the pain would come right back.

Standing (Lots and lots of standing)
The week after I DNF'd it was pretty clear that sitting only aggrevated my symptoms and caused a tremendous amount of nerve inflammation. At first, I tried sitting straighter and getting up frequently, but it was quickly apparent that any sitting, no matter how good my posture, was causing more pain. The problem here is that I work in an office at a desk that I need to be at for most of the day. But, where there's a will, there's a way. Solution - standing desk.

Unfortunately standing desks can cost $$$ and I wasn't about to ask my office to shell out for one. Luckily though, we live in the age of the internet and there are thousands of super crafty people out there. It didn't take long for me to find a quick, cheap standing desk hack. One trip to Ikea later and viola! Standing desk for $22.

My set up at work

The first week standing was hard and my feet were killing me (even though I was spending 50 miles per week on my feet running previous to this). Now, seven weeks later I am feeling just fine. My husband and I also bought a standing desk for home. All said and done, I have done little to no sitting the past two months and if I'm on the couch, I'm laying down horizontally. Even after this injury is over I will probably continue to stand since its better for you anyway. At this point though, I would just love to be able to sit in the car or go to the movies without feeling pain.

Graduate School
Coincidentally the semster started the week I had my injury. I have about 5.5 weeks left of my graduate program and have been working every weekend all semester to finish my thesis. I did this program in 2.5 years straight by taking summer classes. I'm literally counting down the days until December 10th when I will be DONE!

Work
My work coincides with the school year, so September and October are always slammed. Even if I was able to run, I wouldn't have time for lunch runs anyway, which had made the whole not-running thing a little easier to deal with.

Cleansing
I have always wanted to try a cleanse, but with all of the running I was doing, it was impractical to take in so few calories while I was burning so many off. I've done four cleanses over the past two months - an intense 3-day cleanse and three 1-day cleanses every couple of weeks. I don't know that I will be doing the 3-day cleanses that often since I feel like I can't work out at all during them, but the one-day cleanses are really nice and don't throw off your entire week.

I thought I would HATE the beet juice the most, but ironically it is my favorite and I could drink it every day

For those of you who are curious, I have tried three different cleanse companies so far - BluePrint, Suja, and a local Philadelphia juicer called Sip-N-Glo. If I get my act together I might just do a little omparative review.

Finding Other Ways to Workout
The really horrible thing about this injury, aside from the whole no running/no sitting thing, is that I can't bike or swim either. The nerves in my hamstring and butt become too irritated. This has been incredibly frustrating because I haven't really been able to do any cardio. I've resorted to a lot of strength training and try to fit in about 30 minutes a day, but 30 minutes of strength just doesn't compare to the amount of cardio I was getting in.

Finally a few weeks ago my husband and I bought our own heavy bag. We've been going to boxing class on and off for about three years and I've been wanting to set up a home gym for a while. Between all of the PT equipment I've invested in during my injuries and the foam rollers and hand weights I've bought over the years, turns out we have a pretty nice set up. The heavy bag has been great for getting some cardio in and of course, to take out my frustrations about not running :)

So that's pretty much been life for the last eight weeks. I am trying out ART therapy today after work and I'm optimistic about more positive results than traditional PT. I'll keep you guys posted!

Delicious (and Nutritious!) - Let's Get Naked

Welcome to another edition of Delicious (and Nutritious)! Today’s honorary foodie item is Naked Juice. Now normally I am not really a juice person. Or rather, I love juice, but I usually avoid it. Many people forget that juices are actually high in calories, sugars, and carbohydrates, especially if you are not drinking 100%. Its not hard to forget about eating a meal or a snack, but drinking juice can easily be done without thought and you might not remember to add it into your daily calorie count. Usually I stick to water only, with a cup of green or white tea in the morning, and 1-2 glasses of white wine over the entire week, usually on Friday night (oh how different from college days!).

I do make exceptions, however, for Naked Juice! I usually have 3-4 a week and use them as a snack during the workday. They are all made 100% from fresh fruits and veggies and have no artificial flavors, added sugars, or preservatives. Hate eating your vegetables? Well then drink them instead! If you are worried about or have trouble getting enough servings of fruits and veggies then I urge you to try a Naked Juice. They are a great mid-morning or late afternoon pick me up.

Yum yum delicious!

There are a variety of different drinks including fruit juices, fruit smoothies, protein smoothies, and even coconut water. And within each of those categories are enough options to keep you excited for quite some time!

My absolute favorite is Green Machine. “Looks weird, tastes amazing,” their slogan for this particular flavor, pretty much sums it up. Most might be turned off by the dark, seaweed-green color and the noted addition of spinach, broccoli, garlic, blue green algae, and others on the side of the bottle (of course that’s what attracted me to it!). I assure you friends, it tastes delicious! Every time I take a sip it’s like I can feel all the delicious, nutritious nutrients swimming around in my body. I’m also a fan of Mighty Mango, Blue Machine, and Orange Carrot. Pick one up and try it for yourself!

In my fridge this week

 

Delicious (and Nutritious!) - The Sweet and The Green

This is the first post of a whenever-I-feel-like-it series about yummy things. Today’s inaugural post is about Sweetgreen! If you are not from the DC area you may not be familiar with this heavenly place. Allow me to enlighten you:

On their website they describe themselves as “fast-casual dining.” They offer salads (either pre-menu-ed or make-your-own) that are all made from fresh, local and orgranic ingredients. They make, quite simply, the best salads in the world. Even those who are not ‘salad people’ can be turned into converts after one trip here. And if you still have room after your salad (and you’re having a sneaky non-vegan day) you can always get dessert. ‘Sweetflow’ is their tart frozen yogurt to which you can add a number of fresh fruit toppings, granola, and other delectable goodies. It’s all natural, fat free, and full of live active cultures (mmm cultures). And if all of that is not enough to make you try the place then at least do so for their eco-friendly approach to dining: their restaurants are built from reclaimed materials, they use compostable packaging including their utensils, they power their business through wind and solar power, and they compost unused food scraps and recycle as much of their materials as possible. All in all a very progressive place!

The company was started by some Georgetown University students a few years back. Their first store is about the size of a closet and is located right on M Street in Georgetown DC, a major shopping hubbub and also luckily 2 blocks from my Mom’s house. When I was living home towards the end of college we frequented Sweetgreen on a weekly if not daily basis. And still, whenever my sister or I are home it is traditional that we make a trip (or 2) for lunch!

So you can imagine my excitement when I found out that Sweetgreen was coming to Philly! ‘Beside myself’ would be a good way to describe it. It was actually a freak accident that I came upon it. Their location here is just off of Penn campus where I work. One day a few months ago I happened to head up to that spot planning to hit up a Middle Eastern place for lunch. Needless to say I quickly abandoned my previously made lunch plans when I ran into Sweetgreen’s newest location. I was so excited when I went inside and I mentioned to the staff how much I loved their company and how I used to live right next to their original store. Then, for being such a loyal customer, they gave me a 40% discount on my salad! Extra super awesome!

Unfortunately I haven’t made it up there as much as I’d like. I try to bring my lunch to work everyday to cut down on costs. Fridays I usually splurge and eat out, but with all of the insane heat we’ve been having it’s hard to convince myself to walk the 30 minute round trip. However, I was thrilled this past weekend though when my sister came for the Midnight Madness race. Being that the race was at night time instead of the early A.M. like usual we had to consider our dinner options carefully. It’s no fun running on an overly full stomach! This was the perfect opportunity to hit up Sweetgreen and Caitlin was especially excited since they haven’t migrated to NYC yet where she lives. She even picked up a second salad to eat for breakfast on the bus ride home the next morning!